INDIAN AFFAIRS: Bureau of Indian Education Needs to Improve Oversight of School Spending

Unlike public schools, Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools receive almost all of their funding from federal sources. BIE directly operates about a third of its schools, and tribes operate two-thirds. According to BIE data, all of the BIE schools received a total of about $830 million in fiscal year 2014: about 75 percent from the Department of the Interior (Interior), 24 percent from the Department of Education (Education), and 1 percent from the Department of Agriculture and other agencies. Public schools nationwide receive about 9 percent of their funding from federal sources and rely mostly on state and local funding.